Personal Training Websites

Get the Most from Your Workouts and Exercises

noreply@blogger.com (HyperMike) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 21:19:00 +0000

One of the most common excuses people give for not working out is time. They don’t have enough of it. And they want to spend it doing other will. But part of the problem lies in the myth that you have to spend hours a day doing endless cardiovascular and resistance work in order to achieve the results you want. The only guarantee here is that nothing will change for the better, and will likely continue to lead to the weight gain, physical inflexibility, lost strength, and weakened immune system of the sedentary.

Work out

The reality is, you can accomplish all your fitness and health goals in as little as 30 minutes, 3-4 times a week. Unlike the daily exerciser who spends hours doing low-impact cardio, resting between reps, and zoning out in front of the gym television, the Maximizer must be disciplined from start to finish, committing to no rest, and absolute focus throughout the 30 minute effort.

Maximizing engages the most muscle groups in the most effective manner through compound exercises. These are movements that work multiple muscle groups at the same time. For example, a dumbbell bench press activates the muscles in the chest, triceps, and shoulders while a deadlift targets the hamstrings, glutes, and lower back. The time you would spend isolating each of these muscle groups would take you twice as long, whereas the compound moves will lead to the same results just as quickly.

Below is a sample two-day a week Compound workout. Note the associated muscle groups and refer to the links for proper form and execution of each movement:

Day 1:

Standing Shoulder Press: Shoulders and Triceps

Pull-up: Lats, Biceps, Mid-back

Stiff-legged Deadlift: Hamstrings, Glutes, Lower Back

Day 2:

Bench Press: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps

Bent Row: Mid-Back, Biceps, Lats, Shoulders

Barbell Squat: Quads, Calves, Glutes, Hamstrings, Lower Back

Each lifting routine above should take about 20-25 minutes, and with a proper 3-5 minutes warm-up/cool down period, you can be in and out within approximately a half hour. With limited rest, 5-7 repetitions, and heavy weights, you will see increased strength, muscle, and fat loss.

Workouts-and-Exercises

In terms of cardio, you can burn the fat covering those muscles in 30 minutes, twice a week The key lies in the intensity and the “burn.” Using an exercise bike as an example, warm up at a moderate pace for five minutes. Gradually, increase the speed, pedaling as hard as you can for thirty seconds. After thirty seconds, decrease your speed for the next thirty seconds, and then push the speed back up for forty-five seconds. Again, decrease the speed for thirty seconds, and then push the speed back up for a full minute. Each time you decrease the speed for thirty seconds, but add fifteen seconds to each speed increase. And congratulations – you are Interval Training!

It is always best to alternate forms of cardio between biking, running, rowing, elliptical machines, and even outdoor activities such as swimming and rollerblading.

What A Personal Trainer Website Can Do For Your Fitness Business

noreply@blogger.com (HyperMike) — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 18:06:00 +0000

Have you ever thought of how to reach more clients and customers quickly and efficiently?

Work Out

Have you wondered how to best show off your skills, talents, abilities, certifications and education?

Have you wanted to reach more clients than what you physically have time for in a given day?

Putting your fitness business and personal training business on a professional website is the answer.

A professional fitness business website should include the following to give you the most for your money:

1. Your own content management system. You control what messages are out there and what your members see.

2. Your articles, blogs, testimonials, photos and video galleries,

3. Your biography and photos.

4. Your own online store to showcase your packages or products

5. Online training, nutrition, fitness test and goal setting software.

If you want to earn more and shine in your field then a fitness business website is for you.

Let us know if we can build yours - the site will be live and rolled out in two weeks!

We’re on a mission to help personal trainers be their best! We have spent years developing what we believe is a much needed, value-added online fitness training for personal trainers to offer their clients AND generate significant extra monthly income.

We Invite You To Join Our Personal Trainer Community

noreply@blogger.com (HyperMike) — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 11:20:00 +0000

We've set up a personal trainer community site on Facebook. Won't you join the conversation?

We've shared several webinars on how to build your personal training business in the video section as well as demonstrations of our unique software and website platform for personal trainers.

We’re on a mission to help personal trainers be their best! We have spent years developing what we believe is a much needed, value-added online fitness workouts for personal trainers to offer their clients AND generate significant extra monthly income.

How to Earn Additional Personal Trainer Income

noreply@blogger.com (HyperMike) — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 09:30:00 +0000

There are only so many hours available in a day for training clients and you may be left puzzling how you can even think about earning additional income as a personal trainer when there just aren’t that many hours in a day. Before you seek out additional ways to earn personal training income, be sure you do things that you actually enjoy doing and check to see how much time you really have available for pursuing additional income. You don’t want to burn-out in the pursuit of a few extra dollars.

Offer Fitness Workouts
There are a few more traditional and conventional ways to earn additional personal training income and these shouldn’t be overlooked. While raising prices is not ideal, it does need to be done on occasion. Be sure you are doing a yearly evaluation of your costs and overhead versus what you’re charging clients. Avoid just seeing what everyone else is charging for personal training services. Clients are much more understanding of price increases when they’re justified. Another way a lot of personal trainers earn additional income is through running boot camps on a regular basis. Generally these are held on a weekend and will not only attract current clients, but new business as well. Someone who has a great experience at a boot camp may seek you out for personal training services.

Another more innovative way to earn additional income as a personal trainer is by turning to the Internet. This is great because you can offer online personal training, a personal training blog or fitness information website, or create and sell fitness information products in the comfort of your own home. This makes it attractive for those of you who may only have extra time at night, after the family goes to bed, etc. This is actually a more ideal method of earning additional income because it can be residual, meaning that you can make money even when you’re not working on it (websites are a great example). Be sure if you seriously want to pursue this, you approach it correctly and enlist the help of a professional when you design your website or create your information you want to sell online. An information and attractive website filled with quality information is key and you’ll need help building this. Once you start attracting traffic and generating revenue, you can potentially connect with key advertisers that will help you generate even more revenue without taking a lot more time out of your busy day.

We’re on a mission to help personal trainers be their best! We have spent years developing what we believe is a much needed, value-added online fitness training website for personal trainers to offer their clients AND generate significant extra monthly income.

How to Host a Body Transformation Contest

noreply@blogger.com (HyperMike) — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 09:23:00 +0000

As a personal trainer, one of the best ways to generate a lot of excitement and attention towards your business is by hosting a body transformation contest. These contests not only serve as great motivators but also attract a lot of new traffic from customers intrigued by the concept of body transformation.

When hosting a body transformation contest, there’s a lot you want to keep in mind. What do you want to emphasize with your contest? Body transformation is NOT just about weight loss so keep this in mind when promoting your contest. You don’t want to penalize people for gaining muscle while losing weight, which is what commonly happens in the traditional weight loss contest. A body transformation contest should focus more on how the total composition of the body changes over time, and this may mean that not a whole lot of weight is lost at the end of the contest. Be sure that both you and your clients fully understand what body transformation is and then give them the tools to compete successfully.

What’s great about hosting a body transformation contest is that while you are boosting the confidence levels in your clients, you can also generate some extra revenue for your business. Most body transformation contests involve a mandatory support group at least once a month. These meetings usually focus on visualization and guided imagery to help participants achieve their results. You want to provide as many tools as possible and visualization is often underestimated. These monthly meetings should also focus on achievement sharing and any questions about the process.

Be sure participants understand that this is not a boot camp. This is a contest and while you’re providing tools to help them achieve success, it is still a competition. It is up to clients to decide how often they want to meet with you in order to be a major competitor. You’re to serve as an advisor during the process.

In order to encourage healthy competition, be sure you have weekly check-ins to see how everyone is doing. Depending on the factors you’re using for choosing a winner is sure these are all measured and gauged weekly. Post these results in a place where everyone can see.

While body transformation results should be reward enough for a competition, be sure you offer a prize worthy of such a process. Body transformation takes a lot of commitment and people will be more inclined to invest their time and money in the process if the prize is worth winning!

Here is a great checklist on how to host a 12 Week transformation contest. Enjoy!

We’re on a mission to help personal trainers be their best! We have spent years developing what we believe is a much needed, value-added online fitness training service for personal trainers to offer their clients AND generate significant extra monthly income.

How to Sell Online Personal Training

noreply@blogger.com (HyperMike) — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 09:19:00 +0000

Selling your personal training services online can be intimidating, as you miss out on the direct human contact that makes selling your training services so easy. Online fitness marketing, however, is becoming increasingly more popular as it offers so many advantages over the traditional marking strategies you’re probably using right now.

Include Workouts and Exercises On Your Fitness Website

Why is online marketing so much better for business? As a personal trainer, you can more precisely target your marketing dollars towards people that are far more likely to become customers. If you want to maximize your marketing dollars, selling personal training services online is the way to go. Selling online is also so effective because you can regularly attract customers and use the stats available online to see where and when you’re having online marketing success. Traditional marketing techniques just don’t have the ability to so specifically define what strategies are most effective.

Now that you understand why online marketing is so great for your personal training business, the next step is learning how to go about selling your services online. The key to online marketing for personal training involves getting and holding the interest of potential customers. Your fitness website needs to be engaging and clean to the eye. Avoid going overboard with a lot of fluff and keep in mind who your customers are. Those seeking out personal training services are generally driven and looking for results. Be sure your website not only reflects you as a person, but also your business and the needs of your potential customers. Your website needs to be updated routinely, reflecting any specials or events you may be sponsoring. Do not let this slip behind. An outdated website suggests an outdated trainer and customers will get turned off.

Once you have the work out website in place to promote, be sure you use well-placed links for maximum traffic. These links should be featured on websites and in areas where your potential customers will most likely visit. Also take advantage of search engine optimization when selling training services online. This involves the use of specific key words on your website, and in anyone online promotional materials, that your potential customers may be searching for when seeking services out online.

Avoid sounding too gimmicky when selling training services online. You want to sound as real as you are so you can best connect with potential clients. If need be, enlist the help of a professional when beginning your online campaign. This may help you make the most of online marketing.

We’re on a mission to help personal trainers be their best! We have spent years developing what we believe is a much needed, value-added online fitness workouts for personal trainers to offer their clients AND generate significant extra monthly income.

Building a Powerful Referral Network

noreply@blogger.com (HyperMike) — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 16:09:00 +0000

Becoming a successful personal trainer relies heavily on your ability to build a powerful referral network. Why? A powerful referral network builds a strong foundation of clients that become your steady source of income. Word-of-mouth is huge and while you can’t always control what a client says to someone else, regarding your services, there are plenty of ways for you to independently pursue building that network. One of the most powerful ways you can attract new clients is by surrounding yourself with people who will refer you. This is part of the formula for a successful training business.

Workouts and exercises Customized To Your Clients Needs

Of course, the question becomes “how” you go about building this powerful referral network. There are actually two profit-producing strategies you’ll want to deploy in order to make this happen. You’ll not only need to build a health care network but you’ll also need to rely on the power of your clients to fuel your network.

A health care network may come as a surprise to some of you, but keep in mind that having a network of health care providers who will consistently do cross referrals is vital to referral network building. This network of health care providers not only gives you credibility and professionalism, but also will help you build your personal trainer business. This health care network should include trusted professional relationships with doctors, physical therapists, chiropractors, massage therapists, and dieticians. While they refer clients to you, in return, you do the same for them. That’s why it’s vital to develop relationships with health professionals you really stand by.

If you develop a large referral network through health care professionals, you may see a day when you rarely have to pay anything for a new paying customer. This is a great marketing tool.

You also need to do what you can to make sure clients are referring customers to you whenever possible. It should be as simple as providing your clients with great results and hoping they will share their success stories with those within their social circles. It isn’t always that simple and sometimes you need to provide health incentive to your clients. People tend to only spread news when it’s bad, so to ensure they spread the good news of great results, provide referral bonuses. Give them a discount for each referral provided, and provide their new referrals with an incentive as well.

Both these strategies are easy to deploy and have the added bonus of being very inexpensive. When done correctly, these two ways of building a referral network can help you build a whole fitness training business.

Here is a great Referral network checklist. Enjoy!

We’re on a mission to help personal trainers be their best! We have spent years developing what we believe is a much needed, value-added online fitness training service for personal trainers to offer their clients AND generate significant extra monthly income.

Keeping Personal Training Clients Happy

noreply@blogger.com (HyperMike) — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 08:15:00 +0000

No matter how great your marketing campaigns are, your personal training business will not flourish if you’re unable to keep your clients happy. Happy clients are repeat clients that help spread the word about your business to those within their social networks. Actually, once you build a strong clientele, keeping those clients happy is essential to staying in business.

There are several things you can do to keep your clients happy. Periodically changing up your personal training routine with a client is one easy way you can make sure your clients stay happy. Doing this works twofold. First, changing up the routine keeps your clients from getting bored with the workout and what they should expect from their time with you. Second, by mixing up the routine, your clients will see better results. This should make them very happy.

An effective way to keep things interesting for clients is by incorporating interval training into the workout routine. This involves mixing short bursts of high intensity work with lower intensity stretches that allow the body to have a cool-down period. Routines like this break up the monotony of a standard training session.

As already suggested, delivering results to your client is another great way to keep your clients happy. While there is only so much you can do as a personal trainer to make sure this happens, positive reinforcement can go a long way in making sure your clients see great results. Be sure your clients have clear goals that they want to achieve. These health goals should be realistic and attainable. Create mini-milestones for your clients so you can both celebrate success along the way. This helps keep your clients encourages and prevents them from getting intimidated by the “big picture.”

Keeping your clients happy also means accommodating their schedules and being open whenever feasible. Be flexible with your appointment times and be sure your clients have schedules you can easily fit into before signing them on. You don’t want to have a client working shifts opposite to yours.

Host a client appreciation event once a year as a way to show your clients how much their business is valued. Offer a free personal training session or host a free massage event or training clinic as a way of rewarding your clients with something relevant to your clients.

There are a lot of small things you can do to keep your clients happy. Happy clients are the foundation of a successful personal training business; so don’t underestimate how important this is!

We’re on a mission to help personal trainers be their best! We have spent years developing what we believe is a much needed, value-added online fitness training service for personal trainers to offer their clients AND generate significant extra monthly income.

Top Job Interview Strategies for Personal Trainers

noreply@blogger.com (HyperMike) — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 15:38:00 +0000

A personal trainer will constantly come across interview situations in the course of a career. It could be an interview to work at a gym or at an institution. Even the personal trainers that run their own personal training businesses will still have to undergo interviews from prospective clients. Putting your job interview strategy in place can make the difference between whether or not you appear professional.

Although each interview situation is different and will depend on the needs of the person doing the interviews, there are some constant and recurring questions which come up. Familiarizing yourself with these interview questions is a great strategy for acing the interview. If a personal trainer has a good idea of what questions may be asked, it will be easier to skillfully and adequately get prepared. The questions will range from the personal trainers’ insurance to the training fees per session. One commonly recurring question covers the motivation for personal training; the trainers’ and the client. You might want to reexamine your motives for getting into the personal training profession as that is one question that will most likely crop up regardless of whether the interview is by a gym or a prospective client. In the case of clients, they would want to know why they should go with a personal trainer instead of the free exercise regimes available on the internet. You need to be prepared for that question once it is asked.

Another strategy in preparing for job interviews is professional dressing. A personal trainer needs to dress the part to fit the job he or she is applying for. When applying for the job of a personal trainer, you do not have to be all sweaty and tanked topped in order to convince your client (or gym) that you are right for the job. As a matter of fact that may only have the opposite effect. Dress neatly and professionally. It is not essential to wear a suit or even a tie, but clothes should be clean and neat.

If it is possible, make an effort to research the interviewee. It might not always be possible to research a prospective client and may even be taken as an infringement of privacy, when taken too far. But don’t go into an interview not knowing anything at all about the interviewee. And if it is a gym or a corporation, the more you know about them, their philosophies and the like, the better you will do on the interview.

There are several other strategies that a personal trainer could employ when preparing for a job interview such as making sure the resume is updated, keeping in touch with industry trends, knowing the latest fitness fad and having an opinion about it.

Whatever you do, never bad mouth a previous client. That passes across a really negative message about you as a personal trainer.

We’re on a mission to help personal trainers be their best! We have spent years developing what we believe is a much needed, value-added online fitness training website for personal trainers to offer their clients AND generate significant extra monthly income.

How Top Personal Trainers Are working Less and Making More Money

noreply@blogger.com (HyperMike) — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 07:54:00 +0000

Keeping afloat in the recent economic climate has been a challenge for many businesses and the personal training business is not an exception. Yet some personal trainers not only manage to keep afloat, they are also working less and making more money. The secret to this is having multiple streams of income.

Is it possible to diversify in the personal training business? The answer is yes. Diversification of services is how personal trainers are making more money even though it seems as if they are working less. There are a number of ways personal training services can be diversified into other products which would also bring in money but we will focus on three.

1. Authoring

A personal trainer is a professional in that field and can be considered an authority. Apart from the experience garnered from the time spent in the personal training field, to become a certified trainer, you would have taken relevant courses. Writing fitness workout books, guide books to gym equipment and other related books is a great way to make more money from the personal training business. The internet has made this much easier with e-books; you do not have to worry about the cost of publishing. With a pdf document, all a purchaser has to do to get access to your book after payment, is download. The best part about authoring is that you do it once for a particular book and the money keeps coming in each time someone purchases the book.

2. Pharmaceutical Health Supplies

Personal training clients always purchase some form of pharmaceutical product or the other. It could be as simple as a pain reliever or the myriad vitamins that are part and parcel of the personal training program. A personal trainer could purchase these health products at a wholesaler price and make it available for clients to purchase. The market is already there in the form of the personal training clients. Offering these products at a discount will give the clients incentive to buy from the personal trainer until this arm of the business takes off.

3. Merchandise

Fitness merchandise is a huge market in the personal training industry. The market is even larger than that of pharmaceutical products because fitness merchandise is no longer limited to personal training clients or even fitness enthusiasts. The changing trend of fashion has expanded in recent times to include fitness merchandise. Trainers have always been a fashion statement and not necessarily one chosen by people with a desire to train. Same as tights because of the illusion of slimness they create. This is a healthy stream of income and can really grow into a whole separate business if the personal trainer desires.

Online Personal Training

Personal trainers are taking their business global by offering online personal training to a new client base that may not pay for in person training due to time constraints or budget reasons. Savvy personal trainers can have a full website and online training software suite to manage and motivate their clients to their goals. Offering corporate wellness services to local SMBs is also a great way to increase your personal training revenues.

There are other creative means of diversification such as offering group sessions and renting out of premises to other trainers. You just have to find what works best for you and your business.

How to Promote Your Personal Training Business Online

noreply@blogger.com (HyperMike) — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 07:49:00 +0000

Personal Trainers Promote Themselves 24/7

In today’s technology based world it has become almost imperative that a company has to have some form of advertising through the internet in order to be successful. With so many channels being open for advertising and the number of internet user always rising, the internet is the best option for anyone looking to advertise their business

Build a List

In online marketing, this is by far the most important area a business should focus on. Even before you have a website, begin building you list. This is because anyone who chooses to be on your list is someone who want to hear from you and those are the people who will be your prospective clients; they are the ones who you will sell your products to when the time is right.

Have a Fitness Website

Having a web presence is essential. This is where people will come looking for information about what you do. Make sure you have a website in your own domain name; preferably the domain name should be the same name as your business for ease of reference. For example, Health Kick is a great name for a site devoted to people seeking to change their lives through healthy habits. Give your website a lot of attention and focus on details. The design and layout should be simple and easily navigable. Have valuable content, enough to be useful to visitors that come to your site. Don’t forget to put a capture form at a prominent place where visitors can sign on to your list.

Go Web 2.0

Even though having a website is important, it is not enough to catch the attention and engage your visitors. Web users have so many sites to visit and unless what you have is compelling, they have no reason to remain on your site. So, go web 2.0. Make your site interactive; add video and audio clips. Also have a fitness workout blog where visitors can drop comments and form a community. These are the things that bring visitors back to your site and make you stand out in their minds.

Work on SEO

Clients looking for a personal trainer are more likely to do so via the search engines on the web such as Google and Bing. For this reason, a personal training business cannot afford to neglect search engine optimization (SEO). This is working your site in such a way that whenever there is a search for a personal training business in any of the search engines, yours will come up in the search results. There are many ways to make a site search optimized and as many professionals that are expert in the process. It can be time consuming so you might consider outsourcing this part of your business.

Socialize

Social networking sites are a hugely effective way of promoting your personal trainer business online. Sites like Facebook and Twitter make it easy to market to a wide audience. The problem with social networking sites though, is that they tend to be really time consuming so this might be another part you outsource. Get a listing on a fitness community website for increased exposure to personal training clients.

Advertise

Take advantage of online ads and put your personal training business out there on the internet. Pay per click (PPC) ads is a good place to start. Another platform is Facebook especially as you can plan your ad campaign targeting your particular niche with the Facebook demographics.

How to Market Your Personal Training Business Affordably

noreply@blogger.com (HyperMike) — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 06:44:00 +0000

Marketing is a vital aspect of any business as this is the arm that brings in new clients. For a personal trainer, marketing is even more fundamental as a means of widening client scope. While advertising is an important part of a marketing campaign, it can really put pressure on a new business. Yet, a personal trainer cannot afford to ignore marketing. The answer is to look for affordable means of marketing a personal training business. With a little creativity, it is possible for a personal trainer to get his or her business out there without breaking the bank.

Use the Internet. This is a really affordable way to market a personal training business. A personal trainer has a lot of prospective clients on the internet so marketing there makes a lot of sense because there is already an audience. There are really affordable ways of setting up internet presence. Once that is done, employ social media. Make fitness training videos and upload to YouTube. Get active on social networking sites and forums. This is the best way to market your business while building relationships with prospective clients. If you have some money to spare, you could use Google AdWords to market your personal training business or Facebook ads.

It is very easy to get carried away on social networking sites so make sure you have a plan and be conscious of the reason why you are on those sites in the first place; to market your personal training business. However, be careful not to spam.

Use your local Papers. Yes, most people are on the internet these days, but there are still others who read the local papers. Besides, the classified section is quite affordable for a business that does not have a lot to spend on its marketing campaign. One advantage of the papers is that they have a long lifespan, which means that many months after your ad has run, it will still be on old copies of the papers. Also, people tend to check their local papers for local news and local services.

Ask for referrals. Word of mouth is one of the most effective modes of marketing. Some would say it is the most effective. Do not be shy about asking current and past clients for referrals. Asking them to tell their friends and family about your services will not cost you anything but the results can be astounding. Take it a step further by offering incentives to those who refer paying clients. An incentive could be a discounted training session.

Network. Join your local chamber of commerce or fitness community; attend seminars and industry events. Go to places where your potential clients might be hanging out. You need to turn into a social butterfly if you are trying to market your personal training business affordably. Personal training is a business that is mostly built on relationships. Attend parties and other events with that in mind.

The trick is making use of what you already have, such as your network. It is possible to be proactive about marketing your personal training business without spending a lot of money in the process.

How to Host a Fitness Assessment Open House to Attract New Clients

noreply@blogger.com (HyperMike) — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 06:38:00 +0000

In order to attract clients of the highest caliber, a personal trainer would need to exercise creativity in marketing. Hosting an open house is one way to do this. In any business, presentation and packaging are the main focus of a marketing campaign and the personal training business is no exception. A lot of care and detailed planning should go into your Open House so that you project the exact message you want your guests to catch.

Hosting an Open House can be really stressful for a personal trainer and if the guests do not understand what it is all about at the end of the day, it can seem like a wasted effort, which is why it is essential to know just what to do. The following steps should guide you through planning for your Open House.

Choose a date and time for your open house. It is very important to host the open house at a date and time where you have a better chance of getting a large audience because it would be pointless to have open house and not have people attend. Weekends or public holidays would probably be the best option for an Open House.

Do not forget to send out invitations. Even though the occasion is for everyone, make an effort to give the invitations mainly to people you view as potential customers. Make sure to let your guests know what the open house is for and how it would benefit them should they attend. Also let them know that by attending, they are not going to be forced into paying for anything. This is really important. No one wants to attend what is supposed to be a relaxing time only to be strong armed into forking out money for a product they are not even sure they need.

Do not let the day of the party find you unprepared. Make sure everything is laid out well and in place especially for demonstrations. Take special care to be sure that everything is displayed properly and adequately explained. It will not do to leave things open ended so that the guests are forced to make their own conclusions.

Follow the set program and keep to time. People who honor and Open House invitation usually do so because they believe that they have something to gain from the host. Some are busy people and only manage to squeeze the Open House into a short window. Get to the point on time so that you catch them while they are still there to listen. Avoid unnecessary meandering.

Remember that the customer is king so make sure that on the day you treat your guests like royalty. Be courteous and pleasant; make sure there are enough advertising tools such as pamphlets and brochures to go round.

Remember to keep things casual enough to be relaxing without forgetting that you are conducting a business.

How to Work with Personal Training Clients with Prior Injuries

noreply@blogger.com (HyperMike) — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 07:00:00 +0000

It is not unusual for a client with prior injuries to seek personal training. When that happens, it is important for the personal trainer to know how to work with such a client. Most personal trainers are more accustomed to dealing with healthy clients and are stumped when those with prior injuries come to them.

The fact is that as a personal trainer, you will not only come across clients with obvious prior injuries but you will also encounter those who have had long neglected injuries or those that are not immediately obvious and only begin to manifest after the training has begun.

When that occurs, it is vital for a personal trainer to be able to confidently and professionally handle these clients because failure to do so will affect the client’s faith in the abilities of the trainer and can also affect the reputation of the trainer as a professional. Furthermore, if not properly handled, the prior injury could get worse and the client’s health could be compromised. When a client with prior injuries comes to you for personal training, there are some steps you should take.

An important aspect in dealing with a personal training client that has prior injuries is a thorough injury assessment. You need to know the risk profile of the injury; if it is one that is still on-going and if it is likely to become worse.

Doing a careful and methodical injury assessment has the double advantage of making your client feel like you are listening; that makes the client feel cared for which in turn is important in building trust in the client – personal trainer relationship.

Fitness Workouts

In conducting an injury assessment a personal trainer can make use of a standard health questionnaire which will include a section for clients to reveal past and present injuries. A postural assessment can also be done but this requires some degree of expertise.

After the injury assessment, the risk profile of the prior injury should be closely examined because this is what will tell whether or not you should refer that client to a physiotherapist.

In the case of a high risk injury, it is the duty of the personal trainer to let the client know that the prior injury is not completely healed and could cause a major impediment in achieving that client’s fitness goals. The personal trainer should then recommend that the client see a physiotherapist and create a plan for following up with that client. This makes the client feel like the personal trainer actually cares and that for the most part, is what makes clients return to personal trainers.

If the prior injury is not one that crop up again or significantly interfere with the training program, the personal trainer can train through the injury with support from a relevant expert. Note however, that in the case of clients with prior injuries, pain is not gain. When there is pain, it is time to take a break and re-assess.

Work Out

It is also pertinent for a personal trainer to know that an injury assessment is not in any form, a diagnosis.

How to Ask for an Increase in Personal Training Rates

noreply@blogger.com (HyperMike) — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 06:28:00 +0000

It is always a difficult task for a personal trainer to ask for a raise, particularly if you have already formed a good and cordial relationship with the client. But the recent economic climate has made it twice as hard. Nevertheless, as inflation does its work on the economy, and the time spent on a particular client increases or the services for that client increase, so also must the training fee or else, you might find yourself operating at a loss.

When asking for an increase in training rates, it is very important to be logical about it. Do not turn it into an emotional fest with touching tales about your kids at home needing food and all that. First of all determine why you are asking for the increase in training rates and what have those reasons laid out as clearly and logically as you can to the client.

Another thing you need to consider when planning an increase in training rates is the current rates in the industry. You can get away with asking for an increase slightly higher than the going average in the industry but if what you are asking for is so much higher than the current rates, your client is going to give that business to someone they think is more reasonable and no one would blame them. Have your facts at your fingertips, on a printed piece of paper if possible.

If you have increased the value of the fitness workouts and training to the client over time, have a chart of this increase nearby and show it to the client. Studying the regular assessments can also help you know if you have gradually been giving more to the client than the initial agreement. If you have not been giving additional value but you still want to increase the training rates, try adding some more value to the client before you ask for the increase. Widen your scope and functionality to include corporate wellness so that instead of asking for an increase on rates based on the same thing you have been doing, you can now put claim to something different.

Some important things to note when asking for an increase in training rates:

Never try to make the issue a personal matter. Separate the business from your private lives.

Do not be too ambitious or greedy. Make your claims reasonable.

Also consider the other person’s opinion. Personal training is a relationship with the client and it is important to take care not to make it all about you.

Top Ways to Monitor Personal Training Client Progress

noreply@blogger.com (HyperMike) — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 06:06:00 +0000

The main role of a personal trainer is to assist a client in meeting his or her fitness goals. Usually, those goals entail getting fit and into shape. To achieve that end, a personal trainer has to regularly monitor the client’s progress.

There are many ways to monitor a client’s health and physical progress but the most common is measurement. This can be measurement of the cholesterol levels of the client, the resting heart rate, blood pressure, strength, endurance and several other things. However we will just focus on the regular measurements which are weight, body fat and size.

Weight Measurement

Weight measurement by a scale is not the most accurate method when it comes to checking for significant progress with a client. This is because even though a scale might indicate whether the client is losing or gaining weight, it does not go into specifics to say whether the loss or gain is made up of body fat or muscle and in fitness, it is important to know the difference. So even though a scale can be useful, it is not going to give you the whole picture of the client’s progress.

Body Fat Composition

Testing for body fat composition is a way to tell if there is any progress in the client’s weight; whether there is a loss or gain and if that is fat or muscle, or both. A hydrostatic method that is, using an underwater weighing pool is the most accurate means of detecting the real body composition. However, it is also the most inaccessible to most personal trainers.

The alternative would be to use the Body Mass Index (BMI), the waist circumference, waist to hip ratio, the sagittal abdominal diameter or a combination of one or more of these methods. Although this will not be as accurate as using an equipment, it is a quick way of estimating the total body composition in a client and will serve as a good guide for a personal trainer.

Size Measurement

Before the personal training sessions began, you would have taken a thorough size measurement of the client. This was to enable you monitor client progress. The measurement should be as detailed as necessary with measurements of the hip, the waist, chest, thigh, bicep, calf, anything at all that you think might be necessary to determine progress. Special note should be taken of problem areas the client has complained of. When monitoring progress, a personal trainer should take fresh measurements and compare the sizes with the previous measurements to find out if any progress has been made.

Personal Training Software

More and more trainers are investing in personal training software to build workouts and monitor client progress. This can be used in a variety of ways and is particularly useful for online personal trainers. Most personal training software is good for charting measurement of size, weight and even counting calories. Having all this data on hand makes it easier for a personal trainer to monitor client progress.

Whichever method you decide on, a weekly evaluation is usually best and helps a personal trainer keep track of a client’s progress each step of the way.

Tricks to Motivate a Non-Committal Personal Training Client

noreply@blogger.com (HyperMike) — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 13:00:00 +0000

While being a fitness trainer can be draining because of the hours spent on working on your clients differing needs, what is most strenuous for any personal trainer is the problem of non-committal clients. Stemming mostly from the lack of will power, most clients tend to not give their full co-operation into their scheduled training programs. Even though this may seem like a problem out of the personal trainer’s control, there are methods that can be employed in ensuring a higher commitment from such a client. Ranging from change of workout routines to motivational speaking skills, a personal trainer can change the mindset of his clients and thereby motivate them to become much more committed. One thing that keeps most people away from the gym is the fear of body-wrecking and laborious activities that most trainers usual mistake for proper body training.

The most important thing would be make the client feel like they are a part of a team and they need to pull their own end in order for the team to succeed. In many a times, people need to be given a duty or a sense of responsibility and a feeling of being part of a team in order to put in a whole hearted effort.

Piling the client with a heavier workload is not the same as getting results. It is tempting for a personal trainer to view a heavier workload on a client as the road to getting that client in shape. However research has shown that what makes a good workout is the not the amount of weights lifted but rather a well direct, properly structured activity which gets the work done while still being fun for the client.

As a personal trainer, you need to make an effort to get your client to enjoy the time spent with you. If all the client does is endure the period, their motivation level will be affected and the chances of their falling out of the program are increased.

Another aspect that is often overlooked but is vital in being a personal trainer is the ability to listen. There is nothing that puts a client off a personal trainer than that trainer’s inability to hear what the client is saying. How do you want to help a client if you do not know what is going on with that client? This lack of listening can discourage a client and cause a lack of motivation. Conversely, a client is more likely to want to work with a personal trainer that listens when they speak and this can really serve to motivate such a client. Rather than trying to force your ideas on your clients, try to understand their reason for seeking you and try to come to up with a plan that best suits them.

There is no greater way to motivate a non-committal personal training client than showing that you care and the easiest way to do that is to listen to that client and be available and accessible.

How Can Personal Training Software Help My Business

noreply@blogger.com (HyperMike) — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 08:13:00 +0000

It is easy to presume that personal trainers are becoming obsolete. And with the economic state all over the world, no one would really blame you if you decide to fold up; after all, most of your potential clients are now online and are using different free applications created for that. Yet, you would be far from the truth in some respects. Although most people now go to the internet for their fitness workout solutions, there are still many online users who seek the guidance and motivation of a personal trainer from the comfort of their homes. This is where personal training software becomes handy.

Personal training software come in different types and functions and which one you decide to go with will depend on what your needs are. Personal training software perform a variety of tasks including time management, billing, fitness assessment, exercise training, exercise programming and scheduling, and even nutritional evaluation, among others. Your needs will determine what software you choose to go with.

With the lists of tasks above, it is obvious that personal training software can save you the biggest commodity you have as a personal trainer which is your time. Scheduling and planning fitness programs can take up so much of the little time you have as a personal trainer; and so can billing and nutritional evaluation. Personal training software becomes a practical and versatile time saving device.

If you run an online personal training business, you would have to rely heavily on personal training software. This is an asset for an online personal trainer because it is the most expedient way to assess client progress and to work with multiple clients without over stretching yourself.

The great thing about personal training software though is that it could also become essential for the personal trainer that runs a gym or a home training business. It aids in organization and you come out looking ultra professional to your client which is always a positive thing in this business.

Fitness Workout Tracking

If you are thinking of using personal training software, there are many different kinds available in the market ranging from free personal training software which allows you do the basics like creating exercise plans to the really expensive stuff, which incorporate much more complex tasks. It really depends on what you need out of the software and of course, your budget.

If you are serious about growing your personal training business, you would eventually have to utilize personal training software for higher efficiency and time management.

How Can Small Group Training Benefit Your Personal Training Business

noreply@blogger.com (HyperMike) — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 06:18:00 +0000

Not too long ago, the words ‘personal trainer’ conjured up images of a spandex clad, muscular individual, barking instructions at a submissive looking, slightly overweight client. If you subscribe to that image, you need to re-think your decision to become a personal trainer.

The stereotype of the personal trainer went out of the window along with the spandex shorts. For a personal trainer to successfully expand business, it has become necessary to embrace the new business model which includes small group training.

Small Group Workout Sessions

Small group training has rapidly been gaining popularity with a lot of clients for a number of reasons. First of all it is cost effective as it is not one-on-one training; the fees are spread amongst members of the group. Secondly, small group training still gives allows the client to have the attention of the personal trainer so that it still feels like a one-on-one training session. As such, it has become increasingly clear that personal trainers need to incorporate small group training into their business models.

A benefit of the small group training is that it is an additional revenue stream. The thing is the clients who want one-on-one training, will still want one-on-one. Generally, it is a whole new set of clients who will take advantage of the small group training. A personal trainer who makes small group training available would attract clients who would have walked past before.

There is also the extra income that comes with taking on more clients. This is a nice benefit for a personal trainer. Although a personal trainer charges less individually for group sessions than for one-on-one sessions, the cumulative amount from the clients making up the group is more than the personal trainer would have made from one single client in the same time frame.

As a time saving mechanism, group personal training is unbeatable. Instead of spending so much time on a single client, that time could be spent on a group of clients. The benefit of this is the added income, of course but also the relationship that is being built with several people at the same time. This can very easily lead to a high retention rate.

A number of clients go to personal trainers for the extra motivation they need to reach their scheduled goals. Working in a small group can help that client gain support and motivation which will prevent burnout both for the client and for the trainer. The client has support from the other group members and enjoys the motivation and fun. While the personal trainer is free from the duty of providing all the motivation.

Small group personal training is an intimate, time saving affair which can only benefit the personal trainer that is in business.

Top Ways to Attract New Personal Training Clients

noreply@blogger.com (HyperMike) — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 07:55:00 +0000

In order to survive as a personal trainer, it is imperative that you grow by adding to the number of clients you serve. However, this requires time and attention from the trainer. Besides good customer care, as a personal trainer, you should always do the utmost to show that you are capable of delivering results. You could also invest in advertising and work on your making your facilities attractive.

Customer care is always the easiest and most cost-effective way of expanding your business. Customers always seem to consult each other on the best options no matter what they are searching for and physical training is no exception. As a trainer, if you are good at what you do and treat your clients well, you are will get good reviews and referrals which could very easily translate to new clients. This is especially true considering that people would most likely take advice from their friends or relatives.

Offer Fitness Workouts To Your Clients

There is nothing that breeds success than success. This is especially true in the case of a business like personal training. If you are able to get results with your first client, this will almost inevitably lead other clients to sign up. This is because rather than try to convince them with promises, you would have the proof that your methods actually do work. So each successful undertaking with each customer becomes a testimonial to your abilities.

Going online is another cost effective means of attracting new personal training clients particularly if you decide to take advantage of the vast possibilities provided by social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. These networks allow you to show your brand and advertise your results without paying for advertisement in the traditional way. Also, you form a network which is really essential as recent research points to the fact that people are more likely to seek opinions from their networks.

Take out ads in your yellow pages or your local newspaper. With the advent of the internet, it is easy to forget that people do look in the yellow pages for local businesses. Moreover, you would be ignoring a huge pool of potential clients if you choose to relegate the local or community newspapers.

Invest in quality equipment. This goes whether you are offering physical person to person training or online training. If you are offering a physical personal trainer service, make sure your studio is clean and spacious. Also invest in quality equipment really, stinting here can only hurt you. If you are an online personal trainer, invest in a good PC, make sure your internet connection is good and take the time to produce good quality videos for your clients.

Work Out With Your Clients

Whatever method you choose to employ in attracting new personal training clients, do not stop improving yourself. The better you become, the better your results and in the long run, that is the best advertisement for your business.

Top 5 Client Relationship Building Tactics

noreply@blogger.com (HyperMike) — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 06:40:00 +0000

As much as it is paramount for a fitness trainer to know the best workout activities to get their clients in shape, it is also equally important for the trainer to be able to build healthy relationships with their clients. Most businesses tend to lose clients not necessarily because of their inability to provide a good service but rather the lack of communication between them and their clients. The following tactics will go a long way in enhancing client relationship.

Fitness Business Work Out Tips for Personal Trainers

Know Your Stuff: In order to get a solid relationship going between trainer and client, you need to lay out a clear path by which you going to conduct your workouts. Have a good knowledge of your subject and lay well defined boundaries. This will get you respect from your client. No client would like to entrust their well-being into the hands of someone who looks clueless and is without any concrete plan of action.

Communicate: This is where a lot of personal trainers get it wrong. It is essential that the communication lines between trainer and client be open and that communication is kept honest. This builds the trust between the client and the trainer. Always listen when your client speaks even if it is of general issues. This will make it easier for you to detect where the client needs some help. On another note, be careful to not get involved in your clients’ personal lives.

Offer a Reward System: It is always recommended that you practice the method of offering rewards in order to make your subject feel more motivated. By offering small rewards like a couple of shorter workout sessions after a good period of strong working, the client begins to feel your care for their well-being. These health rewards also show the client that you are attentive to the hard work they have been putting in which in turn makes them want to work harder.

Keep Your Demands Reasonable: One of the biggest rules of to getting success in relationships with other people is to avoid making unreasonable demands off them. When you impose big demands on others, there is always the danger of making them feel like they are being set up to fail which in turn creates tension between the trainer and client. So try as much as is possible to make your task to your clients very much achievable, though you should be careful not to make them too relaxed.

Keep to Workout Schedule: Another factor that is crucial for fostering good relationships with your clients is keeping to schedule. When you have an appointment with your client, keep to it and make sure you are on time. In the same way, follow the workout schedule that you have provided for the client. This breeds stability and helps the client see you as trustworthy.

How to Sell Your Personal Training Services & Online Personal Training to Corporate Wellness Companies

noreply@blogger.com (HyperMike) — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 06:35:00 +0000

Being a resident personal trainer for a corporate wellness company is a great step for a personal trainer to take. It is one way to ensure a steady stream of income and to build a reputation as a professional personal trainer. One major advantage of selling your personal training services to a corporate wellness company is that you are able to get maximum rewards for minimum time. That is you put in the same time and effort that you would with a single client but you get a greater remuneration because you are dealing with a group.

Gaining the attention of viable corporate wellness companies however can be a challenge. Mostly because there are already a lot of personal trainers out there competing for the same position that you are trying to get. To successfully sell your personal training services to corporate wellness companies, you will have to stand out.

Have a clearly defined relevant niche. There is no point selling your services to corporate wellness companies if you are known as a personal trainer for seniors or kids. Pick a niche that is relevant to the corporate market and work in that niche.

If there is any appropriate training or certification you will need to obtain to give you an edge over the competition, invest in it. There are a number of organizations that offer corporate wellness fitness trainer certification. Do your research and pick one.

Once you are ready to be a corporate wellness personal trainer, do not be afraid to go out there and network. Join relevant associations. Attend industry conferences and workshops. Put yourself out there and be proactive. This applies even if you are an online personal trainer. Sometimes face to face meetings leave longer lasting impressions than an email.

Utilize the internet in researching and reaching out to the corporate wellness companies. Many of them have online presence so go to their websites and find out what they are looking for. That will make it easier for you to tailor your proposal to suit their needs. Once that is done, look for a contact and get in touch with them. Some might have Facebook pages or Twitter accounts. Get into their social networks and build relationships with them. Do not underestimate the power of social networks.

Whichever means you decide to employ, be sure to be easily reachable. Have an online presence yourself or a phone number where you can be contacted at any time. Have the right personal training software to deploy to the organization as well as an affordable option to manage their employees. The trick to selling your personal training service to corporate wellness companies is to be prepared and to create opportunities for yourself.

How to price personal training packages

noreply@blogger.com (HyperMike) — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 17:08:00 +0000

Being a personal trainer is a business and knowing how to price your packages is an integral part of that business. You need to be able to know how to strike the delicate balance between pricing too high and out pricing prospective clients and pricing too low. It is possible to draw a lot of clients with a low price, but if it is too low, you may not break even and will end up driving them away when you are forced to increase your price. So, how do you determine what price is right for the personal training packages you offer?

First of all, the type of personal training service you offer will decide what price you place on your packages. A personal trainer can charge anything from $60 to $70 per session; some charge much lower while other professional personal trainers charge several times above that. Personal trainers who offer home service will likely charge higher prices than those who meet with their clients at the gym. Again, your geographical location will play a role on how much you can charge for your packages.

If you are giving home service, you can set your price a bit higher than if the client were coming to you at the gym especially if you are bringing your own equipment. This also goes if you are taking the client through the use of their own equipment.

When pricing a personal training package, one of the factors to take into consideration is the size of a session. For obvious reasons, a one-on-one personal training session will cost the client more. This is because all your efforts and time is concentrated on that client. For the same reason, a buddy session, where there is more than one client but not a large group of clients, will be cheaper than the one-on-one session. A group corporate wellness session is more profitable for a personal trainer because you employ the same effort and use up the same time but it is spread around more paying clients. This package is also beneficial to your client in that it costs less per individual client.

The frequency of the training sessions will also impact on your pricing plan. Does the client require a personal trainer on a weekly basis or several times a week? You will need to factor this into your pricing package.

Finally, there are some clients who require intensive fitness workouts and training in a short period of time and none of the regular packages would work for them. For such clients, the intensity of the training they require, coupled with the frequency and location - whether it is at the gym or in their homes or offices – would also determine what price you will place on the package.

When you take all these factors into consideration, pricing your personal training packages becomes less tedious than it might otherwise have been.

10 Tricks to Get a Personal Training Client Out of a Plateau/Rut

noreply@blogger.com (HyperMike) — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 06:31:00 +0000

Getting a client out of a rut is one of the main challenges that a personal trainer is going to come across. A time comes in a client’s work out regime when the body will not burn anymore calories even though that client is still doing the workouts you have planned for him or her. This is period is known as a plateau or a rut. Knowing what to do to bring a client out of this with a health kick is a plus and using these quick tricks will help.

Take a Break: Once you notice that your client has hit a rut, do not insist on forcing the work out. Take a break in order to re-evaluate. Forcing the exercise would only exhaust the client and not yield much result and may actually compromise earlier progress.

Space out the work out sessions: You do not want to overwork your client as this could very easily lead to burn out. It is also one of the quickest routes to getting stuck in a rut. When a personal trainer packs a heavy work load on the client, results become visible at first but almost immediately, they begin to taper off. It gets to a certain level where no matter how hard the client works there do not seem to be any results. This is because the client might be suffering burnout. To avoid this, make sure the sessions are spaced; your client gets proper rest and is adequately rehydrated.

Focus on problem areas: Although it is necessary for the whole body to get exercise, the intense exercises should focus on the problem areas of the client. These are the places that need serious working out and targeting them will help in avoiding the plateau.

Vary the workout routine: It might be that the body has become used to a particular routine and it is not longer having any effect. Changing the routine a bit might be all that is needed to get the client out of the rut.

Give encouragement: it could be a pat on the back; it could even be a job-well-done. Sometimes, all it takes to get a client back up and running are simple, well-chosen words of encouragement.

Give leadership: Some clients need their personal trainers to give them direction. This could actually do the trick.

Introduce a Buddy: Partnering with someone else could serve to motivate your client and actually encourages accountability.

Intensify the Fitness Workout Plan: If you have spaced out the client’s routine or shortened it and it has not produced the results you are after, it might be time to increase the intensity. It could be that the client has become comfortable with the current workout routine and it is no longer having any effect on the body.

Spice it up: A dull routine will almost certainly lead a client into a rut. Make the workout routine a bit more fun and watch your client work out of that rut.

Have a reward system: After your regular assessment period, reward the client when the set benchmark is met.

How to Price Online Personal Training Packages

noreply@blogger.com (HyperMike) — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 10:01:00 +0000

Pricing personal training packages is one of the first things a personal trainer going into business would have to deal with. Offering your personal training services online does not diminish from the fact that you would still have to settle on the pricing for your personal training packages.

Workout Plans for Clients

Personal training online is not as expensive as person to person personal training and a personal trainer needs to be conscious of the fact that a prospective client who goes online to search for a personal trainer probably has one or two things in mind: cost and convenience.

When planning your personal training package for your online business, you need to exercise your creativity because you are not offering your services in the way a traditional personal trainer would. Answering these questions will help you in fixing a price to your packages.

What Does Each Package Involve?

Are you going to be offering nutrition advice? What of the workout session; what is it going to consist of? Planning the content and extent of each package will help you in determining what price to set on each one.

How Will I Communicate with My Client?

This is a really important one. As an online personal trainer, communicating with your clients is essential and how often you do it and what media you employ will affect your pricing. Are you going to create workout videos for that client? Will you schedule phone calls with your client and if you do, how often? All these are things to look into when you are planning your packages.

How Often Will I Conduct Assessments

Most personal trainers conduct some form of assessment of evaluation weekly. However, this is not an item that is available in a basic plan package; it is more likely to be in a more expensive package. If you want a personal training package to be a bit pricier, you could consider adding a weekly fitness workout plan and varying the workout schedule each week so that the client does not get bored. Also think about a weekly progress assessment.

How Accessible to My Client Will I Be?

Are you going to give your client unlimited access to you? This can be done either by email, phone calls or through IM. If you decide to give a client this kind of exclusive access to you, you should also be prepared to charge extra for that privilege or else you will probably be saying good bye to any private life.

These questions are just the foundations and in answering them, you will find that you are able to delve deeper into the preparation of your personal training packages.